On cable, the station is available on Shaw Cable channel 11. On satellite, the station is also available on Bell TV channel 252, Shaw Direct channel 336 on the classic lineup and channel 5 on the advanced lineup, and Rogers Personal TV channel 119. There is also a high definition feed available on Shaw Cable digital channel 211, and Shaw Direct on classic lineup channel 002 or advanced lineup channel 502. The station is available throughout British Columbia through a large network of rebroadcasters.

CHAN-TV and CHEK-TV shared this logo in the 1960s; it was often used when the stations simulcasted programming.

The station first signed on the air at 4:45 p.m. on October 31, 1960. Founded by Vantel Broadcasting, it originally operated as an independent station.[1] It acquired several programs from CTV upon that network's launch on October 1, 1961; it would eventually join the network formally in 1965.[2] The station operated from a temporary studio housed at 1219 Richards Street in Downtown Vancouver, until its full-time studio facility at 7850 Enterprise Street in Burnaby was completed in early 1961. Soon after the station's launch, CHAN began installing relay transmitters across the province, and now reaches 96% of British Columbia. Through its over-the-air signal, CHAN also reaches an American audience in neighbouring Whatcom County, Washington.

In 1963, local entrepreneur Frank Griffiths, owner of radio station CKNW (980 AM), purchased CHAN-TV from Vantel, along with nearby CBC affiliate CHEK-TV (channel 6) in the Vancouver Island city of Victoria, from its original owner, David Armstrong. At that point, CHEK began airing a few CTV programs, usually scheduled at different times than when CHAN aired them. It would become a full-time CTV affiliate in January 1981, but maintained a shuffled schedule. Griffiths' Western Broadcasting Co. later sold a minority share of the station to Selkirk Communications, before buying back full control in 1989.

As early as 1971, CHAN unofficially began using the brand "BCTV".[4][5] In 1973, BCTV became CHAN's official on-air branding, which remained in use until 2001, when it adopted the "Global BC" brand. The "BCTV" brand was retained for its local newscasts until February 2006, but the branding was so effective that many people still call the station by that name today.

CHAN was CTV's third-largest affiliate, and by far the largest in Western Canada. As such, it was one of the backbones of the CTV network for many years and one of the network's most successful affiliates. However, it was always somewhat hostile toward CTV. Management believed that the network's flagship station, CFTO-TV in Toronto, had too much influence over the network. In particular, CHAN felt CFTO received favouritism in the production of CTV's Canadian programming in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

CHAN's final "BCTV" logo. The stylized pacific dogwood was modernized in 1994 and was used until the affiliation switch on August 31, 2001.[6]

Nonetheless, until 1997, CHAN bought the provincial rights to several popular series from CFTO's parent company, Baton Broadcasting. However, tensions were exacerbated that year when Baton won a licence to operate a new television station in Vancouver, CIVT-TV (channel 32), and immediately moved much of CHAN's stronger programs there. Baton won controlling interest in CTV soon after channel 32's launch, and it became an open secret that CIVT would eventually replace CHAN as the CTV station for the Vancouver market. CHAN had signed a long-term contract with CTV several years earlier that would not expire until 1999, but was extended to 2001. However, outside of the 40 hours of programming per week that this allowed for, and CHAN's own local news programs, the station had to rely on lower-profile programming supplied by parent company WIC. A small amount of CHUM Limited-produced programs also aired on CHAN at times during the period from 1997 to 2001, including CityLine.

In 2000, WIC's stations were purchased by Canwest, which owned the Global Television Network. As a result, CHAN was due to become the Global outlet for all of British Columbia. Although Global already owned a station in Vancouver, CKVU (channel 10), it opted to sell CKVU to CHUM Limited and move its affiliation to CHAN due to that station's massive network of rebroadcasters. CHAN-TV's affiliation agreement with CTV expired on September 1, 2001, sparking a major shakeup in British Columbia television:

The CTV affiliation, jointly held by CHAN and sister station CHEK, moved to CIVT, which became a CTV O&O station that branded for a short time as "BC CTV" (later revised to "CTV British Columbia"). Both switches left CTV dependent on cable and satellite coverage to reach the rest of the province, as CTV has refused to set up rebroadcasters in the rest of the province. CHAN retained the rights to The Oprah Winfrey Show, a programme that normally aired on CTV, until the talk show ended its run in 2011.

The Global affiliation, held by CKVU, moved to CHAN, which became the network's new O&O under the "Global BC" brand. CKVU meanwhile adopted the "ckvu13" brand and briefly became an independent station carrying CHUM-supplied programming, some of which had aired the previous season on KVOS-TV (channel 12) in Bellingham, Washington. The station became a Citytv owned-and-operated station (the eventual television system-turned-network's first expansion outside of Toronto) several months later, after the sale to CHUM was approved.

Most of CHAN's former WIC-supplied programming, which migrated to Canwest's newly launched CH system, moved to CHEK (where other WIC programs already aired). The station was rebranded "CH Vancouver Island"; it was later renamed CHEK News in 2007 as part of CH's rebranding to E! and to simply "CHEK" in 2009 following the demise of the E! system.

Religious station CHNU (channel 10; later a Joytv station, now an independent station), launched two weeks later, and a CHUM-owned NewNet station in Victoria, CIVI (channel 53), launched just over two weeks after that.

For the most part, CHAN does not deviate much from the Global schedule. Some programs carried on Global's daytime schedule in other markets – primarily library programs from Shaw Media's specialty channels – are not cleared on CHAN in order to make room for the station's various local news programs.

The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986–2011) aired at 4:00 p.m. on CHAN because the station owned the provincial television rights to this show, dating back to its days as a CTV affiliate. In every other market in which CTV owned a station, that network owned the local rights to Oprah.

CHAN-DT presently broadcasts 47½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7½ hours on weekdays and 5 hours on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among Global's television stations (either owned-and-operated or affiliated), as well as the second-highest among all Canadian television stations, falling behind the weekly news total of CHCH-DT in Hamilton, Ontario by 15½ hours. The station's Burnaby studios also serve as the production facilities for Global's Vancouver-based English national evening newscast Global National and the Shaw Multicultural ChannelMandarin national evening newscast Global National Mandarin. Unlike most Global stations that carry midday newscasts, CHAN airs its noon newscast seven days a week. The station's newscast schedule is very similar to that of an affiliate of the Big Three television networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) in the United States, although as Global lacks a national morning news programme, CHAN's weekday morning newscast runs a length similar to that of many Fox and other news-producing non-Big Three U.S. stations.

CHAN's news operation is well respected in the industry. Ever since the station first aired an hour-long newscast in the 1960s, a major part of the station's cash flow has gone into its news department, and it has garnered high ratings and major awards since then. The station's 6:00 p.m. News Hour broadcast has been the highest-rated local newscast in the province for many years, as well as the most-watched in all of Canada.[7] The station's on-air news style was even used as an inspiration for Ted Turner's CNN, as both use the newsroom as a backdrop during the broadcast. The current newsroom was constructed in 1975; it was rebuilt in the early 1990s, moving the studio out of the newsroom, but keeping it as a backdrop, and was later remodelled in 2001 and 2006.

Starting in the early 1990s, CHAN harboured ambitions of producing an early evening national newscast from its studios. In fact, several newscast pilots were produced at CHAN, suggesting the network was seriously considering such a move. However, that newscast never materialized; instead, CHAN began producing Canada Tonight, which aired on most WIC-owned stations beginning in 1993. Two versions were produced: one for British Columbia itself, hosted by CKNW radio commentator Bill Good (who later went to CTV's current Vancouver O&O station, CIVT-TV, and retired in December 2010) and a national version, hosted by Tony Parsons, who also anchored CHAN's nightly news programme, the News Hour. When Canwest purchased CHAN, the stories that were once sourced from CTV's other affiliates throughout the country were replaced by stories sourced from Global's affiliates.

From 2001, when the station became "Global BC," the news department underwent a minor retitling as BCTV News on Global. CHAN opted to keep the "BCTV" name for its newscasts, since that brand was still very well respected in the province; it also wanted to keep CIVT from using the name itself, as it contained the letters "CTV." In addition, CHAN became the headquarters for Global's national news centre and the production facility for a new national newscast, Global National (which is currently anchored by former CTV and NBC correspondent Dawna Friesen on weeknights and on weekends by Robin Gill;[8] originally anchored beforehand by Kevin Newman), thus fulfilling its longstanding dream of producing a national newscast. The programme is broadcast live from tape from Vancouver at 5:30 p.m. (Pacific Time Zone), airing locally prior to the 6:00 p.m. News Hour broadcast.

The "BCTV" brand was finally discontinued when Global introduced its new logo and on-air identity on February 6, 2006; CHAN's newscasts were rebranded as Global News (with its overall branding changing to "Global BC") at this point. In 2006, Global struck an agreement with the Canadian Traffic Network to supply the station with a Robinson R44 news helicopter with gyroscopic camera mounts. The helicopter is branded as "Global 1" – the same designation used for the news helicopters used by other Global stations – which is shared with CKNW, and is the second news helicopter in Vancouver (after that used by CIVT).[4]

On December 16, 2009, Tony Parsons anchored his final newscast at CHAN after 34 years as anchor of the News Hour.[9] It was expected that he would remain until after the 2010 Winter Olympics, but left much earlier than expected for unknown reasons. Parsons joined CHEK as anchor of its 10:00 p.m. newscast on March 15, 2010 and also began anchoring the evening newscasts at CBC Television O&O CBUT (channel 2) on April 12, 2010, remaining at both stations until his retirement in 2013.[10][11]

CHAN began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition on September 20, 2010 (Dawna Friesen was named anchor of Global National on that same date); the station debuted a new graphics package as well as an HD-ready virtual set two weeks later on October 4, which utilized the same set with minor changes to the desk. CHAN-DT uses Betacam SP analogue videotape for all of its local advertisements and for pre-recorded segments within its newscasts; however, the station is slowly moving to a digital format for video production. MPEG-2 transmission is used on nearly all non-local broadcasts.

On January 11, 2012, Shaw Media filed a licence application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission – which was approved on July 20, 2012 – to launch a Category Bdigital-onlyspecialty service that would serve as a British Columbia-focused news channel operated by CHAN-DT and utilizing its news staff.[12] The channel, which was given the name Global News: BC 1, launched on March 14, 2013. It became the fourth regional news channel in Canada and the first outside of Ontario (joining Toronto-based 24-hour services CP24 and the now-defunct CityNews Channel, and Hamilton-based independent station – and former CHAN sister station under their prior Canwest ownership – CHCH-DT, which carries a heavy local newscast schedule along with some entertainment programming).[13]

On August 27, 2012, CHAN-DT expanded its weekday morning newscast to four hours, with the addition of a half-hour at 5:00 a.m. (making it only the second Canadian station with a pre-5:30 a.m. morning newscast, after CHCH-DT), the 5:00 to 6:00 a.m. hour of the newscast was retitled as the Early Morning News; in addition on September 2, 2012, the station also expanded its Sunday morning newscast to three hours with the addition of an hour at 7:00 a.m. The expansions of CHAN's morning newscasts were part of a benefits package that was included as a condition of the sale of the Global Television Network to Shaw Communications.[14]

CHAN operates the single largest private transmitter network in North America, with roughly one hundred transmitters (some of which are community-owned) providing over-the-air coverage to 97% of British Columbia. Therefore, the network relies exclusively on cable and satellite in the municipalities not covered by the transmitter network (including most where CFCN in Calgary and CFRN in Edmonton were already available over-the-air prior to 2001).

semi-satellites are displayed in bold italics.
Note that the transmitters in Kelowna and the surrounding area (CHKL-TV) are in addition to CHBC-DT, a co-owned separate Global station in Kelowna that originates its own local evening newscasts, but which carries Global BC's programming at virtually all other times. CHAN is the last owned-and-operated station of the three major Canadian broadcast networks (CBC, CTV and Global) in the Vancouver market to still operates rebroadcasters throughout most of the province.

On October 15, 2012, CHAN-DT's transmitters in Kelowna, Penticton and Vernon were converted to digital signals.[15] These were the station's first rebroadcast transmitters to be converted to digital as part of Shaw's efforts to convert all of its television transmitters to digital by 2016.

CHAN broadcasting its digital signal on April 11, 2008 on UHF channel 22.[17] On June 29, 2011, CHAN-DT increased its effective radiated power (ERP) from 8.3 kW to its post-transitional allotment of 40 kW. CHAN's primary Vancouver transmitter was the station's only one required to go digital by the transition deadline. Shaw Media has committed to converting all of the other over-the-air transmitters to digital by 2016.

CHAN shut down its analogue signal, over VHF channel 8, on August 31, 2011, the official date in which Canadian television stations in CRTC-designated mandatory marketstransitioned from analogue to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 22.[18][19] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display CHAN-DT's virtual channel as its analogue-era VHF channel 8. The station's electronic programme guide began functioning properly on January 28, 2012.